Many varieties of power equipment are available for residential, commercial and industrial use. Examples of such power equipment include but are not limited to mowers, lawn tractors, snow blowers, snowmobiles, cable-laying machines, trimmers, tillers, ditch diggers and chippers/shredders. Such varieties of power equipment can be equipped with an internal combustion engine as a primary source of power to facilitate operation of the power equipment. Because power equipment can be quite heavy, driven elements such as wheels, belts or tracks are often provided to better facilitate movement of the power equipment by an operator.
For example, perhaps the most common variety of power equipment having an internal combustion engine and driven elements is a lawn mower. Mowers are available in many sizes and configurations, including but not limited to riding mowers, lawn tractors, walk-behind mowers, and zero-turn radius (ZTR) type mowers. Many such mowers include a mechanical connection between driven elements (e.g., wheels) and the rotating drive shaft of an internal combustion engine. This mechanical connection might typically include pulleys, gears, transmissions, gearboxes, belts, tapes, chains, and/or hydraulic motors, for example. Through such a mechanical connection, one or more of a mower's wheels can be rotated in order to propel the mower along the ground (e.g., causing the mower to be “self-propelled”).
Conventional systems for propelling driven elements are typically complicated, bulky, heavy, expensive, unreliable and often provide an operator with limited variability of control, thereby significantly limiting the effective maneuverability of the mower in use. Accordingly, there is a need for smaller, more effective, lighter weight, more efficient, and more reliable methods and apparatuses for causing propulsion of one or more driven elements associated with power equipment.